ERC-group microflex: microbiology of Dehalococcoides-like Chloroflexi

Abstract

The Microflex project, funded within the first call of the European Research Council, focuses on a specific group of bacteria, the Dehalococcoides-like Chloroflexi. This group of bacteria deeply rooting in the phylogenetic tree is formed by several cultivated strains of the proposed genus “Dehalococcoides” and many sequences of uncultivated organisms mostly from marine sediments or terrestrial subsurface locations. The project compares cultivated Dehalococcoides species growing by organohalide respiration using halogenated compounds as electron acceptors with marine Chloroflexi populations. For this comparison a wide array of different approaches and techniques are used including cultivation, biochemical analyses, molecular tools and isotopic fractionation measurements. The project aims at contributing to the understanding of the physiology of Dehalococcoides-like Chloroflexi in deep marine sediments and their mode of living. A second aim of the project is the further understanding of the physiology and biochemistry of dehalogenating Dehalococcoides species and how these bacteria can be used efficiently for bioremediation of contaminated subsurface environments.